You can now talk to your drop

Hey fellow record dreamer,

TL;DR: Ask This Drop is now available on your Collxn Daily Drops. Also: I share a few memorable recent shows in Kansai.

Read on for the details. Or follow Collxn on Instagram.

Ask This Drop

Back in December, I pulled Madvillainy off the shelf, and wondered how many variations of the album I own on vinyl. As I shared in "Luggage Record #4", the answer is 5.

From there, I found myself wondering about things like:

• What order were these albums released in?
• Who appears on which release?
• Which pressings do I have?
• How much are original pressings going for?

This kind of sleuthing around can be fun, but it does turn into browser tab juggling quickly and can pull you away from your music.

Lately I’ve been working on a feature in Collxn that makes that kind of exploration a little easier.

It's called Ask This Drop.

"Hello, Record!"

"Hello to you too! I'm so happy to be here."

—Your record, possibly

When you open your Daily Drop now, you can ask questions directly about the record. Just type in the chat box, click "Ask this drop", and start a conversation.

You can "Ask This Drop" about all kinds of topics related to your Daily Drop. Think:

• Your collection
• Discogs availability and prices
• Artist news
• ... and beyond

The Daily Drop started as a way to surface one record from your collection each day. A gentle nudge to rediscover something you already own.

Ask This Drop brings that rediscovery to life by letting you talk back. It connects that part of your record collection to the broader world.

Collxn gets a shoutout from OpenAI

If you've been following Collxn's journey for a while now, you might recall that I demoed a concept called "Collxn Vibe Match" at NYU's ITP Camp last June. The Vibe Match demo let participants state their feelings to my record collection and get some recommendations from, uh... also my record collection.

I wrote at the time:

I'll be honest: I'm not super sure how Vibe Match would work in the actual app yet, but it sure was a blast to demo.

I said then that I would keep tinkering on it. In the intervening months, I landed on Ask This Drop as the right first step for this kind of interactive experience in Collxn.

Ask This Drop (like its forbearer Vibe Match) runs on large language models by OpenAI under the hood.

So I'm excited to share that OpenAI included Collxn as part of a spotlight on smaller developer projects. Their write-up is aimed at software developers, but if you're curious about what's going on under the hood, you can check it out on the OpenAI Developers blog.

It's worth noting that Ask This Drop is only available to the owner of that specific Daily Drop. If you have a public Collxn profile, visitors cannot ask about your drop or see your chat history. This is a private, one-on-one experience between you and your record. (And the AI, of course.)

Recent shows in Kansai

Here are a few shows I caught in Kyoto and Osaka recently.

Kiefer - Billboard Live Osaka

I recently saw Kiefer at Billboard Live Osaka. Beats-y acid jazz goodness.

His first album, 2017's Kickinit Alone, was on constant repeat for me that year when I was a first-year dad, often writing code in an NYC apartment while the baby slept. I've been a fan ever since.

If you haven't been to Japan before, one thing that's different from, say, seeing a show in NYC is that you are often sitting down. I can't say I love sitting at shows personally, but if you're going to sit, you might as well do it weird. Our seats for Kiefer were literally touching the stage. I was right in the middle of the trio, with Kiefer on the keys to my left, the bass player Carrtoons directly in front, and the drummer on my right. Immersive!

Anyhoo, it was such a fun show. It's clear that Kiefer feels a connection to Japan and it was fun to be a part of that for a night. He even made time at the end to meet fans and sign records.

Oh, here's his Tiny Desk.

DJ Krush - Nujabes Tribute Show

Another highlight was DJ Krush's Nujabes tribute show at Kyoto World.

Nujabes was a pioneering Japanese producer and DJ who blended hip-hop with jazz and other genres. He had a huge influence on the lo-fi hip-hop scene and is beloved by many around the world. Locally, his music carries a lot of emotional weight since his early passing in 2010. You could feel some of that in the room, but the evening really was a joyous celebration.

I've listened to DJ Krush for a very long time but it was my first time seeing him live. I hadn't really thought deeply about what to expect so I was surprised that we were treated to a bit of turntablism on top of the dark, smoky beats. It was a really fun show and a great tribute to Nujabes' legacy.

The openers were top notch and worth a follow: Yukaribb brought the lo-fi party hip-hop and Toyo brought some incredibly uplifting drum-and-bass.

Okihana - Tea Ceremony & Audio Visual Performance

One of the more unusual events I went to recently was Okihana, a tea ceremony combined with an audiovisual performance at Noga Hotel Kyoto.

I'm not sure I can cohesively explain what we saw, but there was a Go board game attached to a camera that would interact with projected visuals and synths. Volunteers would come up from the audience and move pieces around the board, effectively becoming part of the performance. This was accompanied by a koto player and tea preparation.

Like I said... it's hard to describe (and based on my camera roll, hard to capture), but it was a beautiful, contemplative way to kick off a Saturday night in Kyoto.

Shoutout to Simon at Kyoto, in Sound for the recommendation.

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As always: thanks for being here. More soon.

- Ash